FAIR's Rising Generation

Archive for September 12th, 2009

I found this while hanging out on Youtube and was thoroughly impressed. Scratch that. I was inspired. It’s so simple in its execution, yet deeply thought provoking. See if you aren’t convinced yourself.

Once again, I’ll keep my introduction short. For those who don’t know, this is the last of three posts I’ve dedicated to putting some meaning into the Young Women’s Theme. The first post can be found here and the second here. I’d suggest that you read those, but if you don’t that’s fine, this one will still make sense.

In my last post I talked about the first four values and this one will talk about the rest, and without any delay, here they are:

Choice and Accountability

I know our accountability is extremely important because Satan tries so hard to take it away from us. His goal from the beginning was to make us monotonous zombies who followed his will without question. He constantly sets up snares to make us feel set free, but they later imprison us. It’s so important to value and use your accountability and to make the right choices. I know I probably sound preachy, but for once I can’t find the right words to properly tell you how vital it is that we make the right choices. Ultimately it’s a choice between good (freedom and eternal happiness) and evil (imprisonment and endless torment).

One of my all time favorite scriptures is Moses 1: 13 “And it came to pass that Moses looked upon Satan and said… behold, I am a son of God… and where is thy glory that I should worship thee?”

I promise you that Satan has no glory.

Good Works

An important lesson I learned only a couple of months ago is that people won’t know you love them unless you show it. Whether your love is a general charitable spirit toward mankind or a love directed at one person, you have to show it or it won’t do any good. If one of your friends casually tells you that they love you (this happens a lot with girls, I apologize to any of the male readers) you’re not going to feel the love that strongly, even if they honestly mean it. However, if they visit you when you’re sick or help you rake the lawn when your parents pull one of those embarrassing things where they make you do chores while you have friends over, then you’d know they love you. If you love somebody enough that you’re willing to rake their lawn, then show them, because they wouldn’t know otherwise.

Integrity

Integrity is mostly just being a good person. It’s a very general value, and has to do with choice and accountability and good works and virtue. That being said, I don’t think there’s much to add to this that I haven’t already said, or am about to say, other than that people notice. There’s something about a person who helps the kid in the hall pick up their stuff after they’ve tripped (even if they’re going to be late for class) that inevitably makes you admire them. You may think they’re stupid for doing it, but it’s still admirable.

Virtue

This one is my personal favorites. Not that I value virtue especially; I just have a tendency to focus on things that most others don’t. A lot of groans were heard when our YW president announced that we might have to complete four more goals and another ten hour project given the likelihood that three more YW’s goals would be added sometime soon.

Shortly after the announcement we had Standards Night, and each Young Woman had to give a short talk on a value. (In case you were wondering, we have eight Young Women in our ward, so it worked out nicely). As you may be able to guess, I immediately offered to do my talk on virtue just because…, you know, I hate to see the new kid get picked last.

Theoretically, I should be an expert on virtue now, and that isn’t true. However, I can proudly (but of course, not too proudly) say that I know what it is, why it was made a value, and how it’s different from integrity. That’s better than any of the young women I’ve talked to about it, so I guess that almost makes me an expert by comparison.

So what’s virtue? I don’t see a need to say anything other than that it is to have a clean conscience. It is not to ignore your conscience or to lack one; it is to be sensitive and obedient to the Spirit when it tells you that you’re about to do (or are doing) something wrong. This requires that we strive toward and actually live a life that follows the standards of the Church.

Why was it made a value? In the words of Elaine S. Dalton “Never has there been a time in the history of the world when virtue is more needed”.

Everywhere you go these days you see girls who say and do things, and put up with things done and said to them, that wouldn’t even be dreamed of in a world that didn’t lack virtue. There is no doubt in my mind that a virtuous woman (or man) will be noticed and influential.

How is it different from integrity? Integrity is being a good person while virtue goes beyond that. Somebody could be a complete jerk to everybody around them, drink themselves blind every Friday night and drop the F-bomb left right and centre, but if you proposed that they dine and dash and they say no, you could say they have integrity. Virtue, on the other hand, is something such a person clearly lacks.

If you want to know more about virtue and why it was made a value then you should read “Cherish Virtue” by Elaine S. Dalton. It’s short ‘n’ sweet, so you probably don’t have a good enough excuse not to read it.

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I hope that now you’re at least somewhat closer to understanding that the values and the Theme aren’t as meaningless and repetitive as most of us think they are. Integrity and virtue aren’t the same thing and neither are divine nature and individual worth. I know that every aspect of the theme and every value was put into the YW program for a reason. They didn’t add virtue just for the heck of making us work harder. The Church and YW Presidencies know (at least to a certain degree) how busy most of us are, and they wouldn’t have added virtue unless it was important.  They wouldn’t have bothered with any of the values unless they were important. If you think they “just don’t understand” you’re wrong; it’s their job to understand, and if they weren’t good at it, they wouldn’t be in the callings they are today.

Like many things, the YW Theme has as much meaning as you give it. If the Theme is just something you chant every Sunday, then of course you’re going to think it’s repetitive and meaningless. However, if you bother to think about it, you’ll find that it isn’t just some colorless chant. You can always find meaning in something, especially the YW Theme.

I’ve put some color and depth into this aspect of the Church, and I strongly encourage any Young Women out there who find the Theme as vague and repetitive as I used to to put some meaning into this chant for themselves.